Category: Italian Economy

What does China have to do with the Universal Basic Income (UBI)? A lot! And it directly concerns us in Italy and Europe. The unparalleled expansion of the Chinese economy and the advancing globalization launch challenges that have to make us reflect on how to deal with this double tsunami.

Yesterday, Thursday 12th April, I was the guest live from Beijing on Agorà program, RaiTre, conducted by Serena Bertone. The main topics discussed were: the formation of the new government, the agreement between the parties and their political programs.

The new tariffs imposed by China on the United States also concern Italy, especially the luxury sector, the manufacturing industry and the agri-food sector.
For this reason, it is important to know which products have been affected and to what extent. The article provides some useful information and data on the recent tariffs.

Italian newspaper “Il Foglio” has discussed a politicized version of the debate between “More Europe or Less Europe? More free market or more protectionism?” quoting Salvini and Di Maio, the leaders of League and Five Star Movement. Here is my opinion.

G7 did not achieve its main goal because it was squeezed in between the Silk road summit in Beijing and forthcoming G20 meeting in Germany, and of course it was of the interest of Germany to make sure that the G7 held in Italy was not going to be successful so that Germany could get all the credit for any international agreement during her G20.

The Financial Times reports that the European Commission intends to launch a new type of Government bond, packaging the bonds of various countries into a single security. I think this is an extremely bad and dangerous idea. First, it is a distortion of the market that would cause large amounts of capital to flow into the bonds of the weaker economies, just as it happened when the Euro was created and interest rates started to converge. Second, The pooling of bonds carrying various risks into a single security, was at the core of the global financial crisis.

Today, in a short commentary written for Radiocor/IlSole24Ore, I discuss the issue of migrant flow into Europ and its impact on the economy of the host country. Everyone asks the question “Do migrants bring positive or negative benefits to the receiving country?”. The short answer is it depends on a number of variables and generalisation across the globe would be mis-leading. However, narrowing the focus on the Mediterrenan migrant flow into Italy, one can almost certainly affirm that in the short term, the impact is negative and that in the long term it is, at best unclear. The impact may potentially be positive only under a strict set of assumptions, that need to be carefully analysied before making irreversible decisions.

Alberto Bagnai said that there should be a controlled end to the euro. He is a professor at Pescara University who is one of the leading Italian advocates of leaving the euro. My main comment is that if Italy remains in the Eurozone, it will be very difficult, almost impossible, for Italy to escape the current economic crisis. Indeed, things may get worse over time. If however, Italy decides to exit the Eurozone, there is a chance. It does not mean that Italexit will bring prosperity, but it will give Italians a chance.